The subject of the research presented in this paper were financial results of mining industry enterprises (PKD 5 – P olish C lassification of A ctivity – “Mining of coal and lignite”) in 2007–2019. The research was conducted using relative and absolute financial measures, forming an extensive and coherent set of features characterizing their financial condition. The purpose was to measure and evaluate the efficiency of examined enterprises operation, considered as an attribute of development as well as factors describing and determining it. This evaluation was made against the background of ongoing restructuring processes taking into account their potential effects.

The article presents the course of the process of adapting P olish hard coal mining to market economy conditions after 1989. The process can be conventionally divided into several periods. The scope and intensity of changes in the mining industry followed the subsequent government programs for mining industry restructuring.

The lignite mining has not implemented any specific restructuring programs. The remedy processes were mainly related to organizational and ownership changes.

In relation to operation efficiency and value creation three turning points in the development path of enterprises were highlighted – 2011, 2015 and 2017, while the period of strong deterioration of results occurred in 2011–2015. I t was proved that restructuring processes did not affect the operating return on sales. However, there was a strong relation between changes in economic conditions on the coal market (prices) and the accumulation rate.

The Polish political transformation of 1989 brought significant changes not only on the political and social levels but also on the economic level. The Polish economy, which until then had been a centrally planned economy, had to be rapidly changed into a free market economy. As a result of this, a lot of areas of the economy had to be transformed including the mining industry, especially hard-coal mining. In 1990, there were seventy-one mines in operation in Poland, employing nearly 400,000 people. The process of decommissioning these mines, which continues to this day, began in 1994. Walbrzych coal mines were among the first to be liquidated. Poland has long been dependent on coal for energy production, but the country is facing increasing pressure in the transition to cleaner and more sustainable energy sources in order to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change in order to fulfil EU climate policy assumptions. Civil society organizations in Poland were associated with the political transformation, as the changes in the system has opened the doors for the social participation in decision-making processes. Civil society organizations in Poland have been actively pushing for policies and initiatives that promote renewable energy, energy efficiency, and the phasing out of coal. However, it should be underlined that the role of civil society in energy transformation is crucial as on the one hand, it should be an advocate of change, but on the other hand, civil society has to take an active part in the discussion on the challenges of the transformation, such a change in the employment structure which is an inevitable consequence of the energy transition. The scope of the paper is to provide a set of tools for the civil society participating in energy transformation processes.